I think this spell is underrated. Bonus action so action is free to use action for cantrip on turn of casting and then other spells on subsequent turns. Base damage is kind of low but with a 15% crit chance instead of 5% gives a good chance for a crit which deals and average 156 damage(24d12). Pair this with war caster to keep concentration and this can easily wipe any boss or a party for the bbeg.
Wrong, the spell is 1 Action to cast, the attacks and movement are a Bonus Action. So both are used for the first round, and BA is used thereafter to attack/move the blades - but the Action is then free for other shenanigans.
Wrong, the spell is 1 Action to cast, the attacks and movement are a Bonus Action. So both are used for the first round, and BA is used thereafter to attack/move the blades - but the Action is then free for other shenanigans.
The problem with blade of disaster is that, in tier 4 combat, 4d12 (twice) per round is really just chip damage (average 52), and spending your 9th level spell slot and your concentration on that is dubious. It's not a hopeless spell, it might be as good as power word kill, but it's by no means S tier, or even A tier.
You are right, it only requires the Bonus Action, my mistake. But you get to use that 4d12x2 attack for 10 Bonus Action attacks, if combat last that long, and your Action is still free for (non-concentration) things. Oh, and the attacks from BoD have an expanded critical hit range (18-20), and when you score a critical hit it does 12x12 damage instead of 8x12 damage. Sure, the spell is no Wish or Meteor Swarm, but it's not terrible either!
You are right, it only requires the Bonus Action, my mistake. But you get to use that 4d12x2 attack for 10 Bonus Action attacks, if combat last that long, and your Action is still free for (non-concentration) things. Oh, and the attacks from BoD have an expanded critical hit range (18-20), and when you score a critical hit it does 12x12 damage instead of 8x12 damage. Sure, the spell is no Wish or Meteor Swarm, but it's not terrible either!
Perhaps for a Wizard you are correct, or even a Sorcerer, but I am currently seeing it from the viewpoint of a Hexblade Warlock and it doesn't seem too bad from that viewpoint.
The party for my Sunday game features a warlock with Blade of Disaster (the BBEG's chief lieutenant cast it on them, they later learned the spell via their Arcanum to get their revenge) and myself as a wizard who routinely prepares Wall of Force. Because Wall of Force is busted beyond belief, apparently even more so than I thought.
At the end of a long, dangerous dungeon, we cornered a sub-BBEG in her relatively small office space. We spotted just in time that she was setting up a nuclear-level Delayed Blast Fireball, and I cast Wall of Force to seal her side of the office away from our side and make her eat it herself instead. This immediately proceeded to Stage 2 of boss fight. My Wall of Force was still up. Our warlock cast Blade of Disaster...which can pass harmlessly and effortlessly through barriers such as Wall of Force.
We had, without planning it, created an inescapable* BBEG Murder Blender of +3 ****-You-Too-Buddy. Both of the individuals maintaining concentration on the necessary spells were on the safe side of the Wall of Force. A large percentage of creatures in D&D simply have no answer to this combination. Which, yes, is true of other save-or-die spells like (old) True Polymorph as well, but remarkably few two-spell combinations can simply end combat this way. And even many "save or die" spells are "save or die shortly" with a recurring save, not to mention legendary resistance. This combination simply happens.
In this case, the sub-BBEG used Psychic Scream to stun the warlock with an INT save they were incapable of passing and disrupt the Blade of Disaster, so we had to win that fight a different way. But when we broke at the end of session after setting up the Climactic Battle for next time, the DM was staring down an invincible blade that could deal catastrophic damage if given enough time stuck in a 10x20 room underground they had no hope of getting past, with an entire party of 18th-level adventurers on the other side of the unbreakable wall.
Blade of Disaster is not on the same level as the best ninth-level magic in the game. It is far from a bad spell, however. And in exactly the right circumstances it is one of the funniest things you can possibly do to a DM.
[...] Blade of Disaster is not on the same level as the best ninth-level magic in the game. It is far from a bad spell, however. And in exactly the right circumstances it is one of the funniest things you can possibly do to a DM.
And DMs never ever plan revenge involving hoisting the players on their own petard. I can't wait for the two dueling casters trying to kill each other with their blades of disaster from opposite sides of the wall of force.
Blade of Disaster is almost never going to be a spell you regret having. You may wish you'd taken something else in particular situations, but it's pretty much always going to be useful, and sometimes it'll be the right thing for the situation.
And, more importantly, it's going to be fun. It's like Psychic Scream. Perhaps not the optimal spell (though it isn't bad), but it makes heads explode. BoD lets your wizard sit back and go hacketty-hack at the enemies. Neither can equal power word: tacnuke in damage output, but nothing can. (And both are slightly more selective, which is often useful.)
You are right, it only requires the Bonus Action, my mistake. But you get to use that 4d12x2 attack for 10 Bonus Action attacks, if combat last that long, and your Action is still free for (non-concentration) things. Oh, and the attacks from BoD have an expanded critical hit range (18-20), and when you score a critical hit it does 12x12 damage instead of 8x12 damage. Sure, the spell is no Wish or Meteor Swarm, but it's not terrible either!
Invulnerability is boring and ties up your 9th level slot and concentration without doing anything to the boss, Prismatic Wall is niche, Shapechange scratches a different itch, Mass Polymorph doesn’t actually move the party much closer to victory, Psychic Scream is good as an AoE but not as a focused attack, True Polymorph is either the same as Shapechange or a single save or suck effect, and Foresight is flaky since it’s just additional rolls rather than hard bonuses.
Blade of Disaster bypasses most boss protections against high end magic and attacks for 26 average damage twice per bonus action, before accounting for the boosts to crits. I’d put it at least at B for 9th level spells.
We had, without planning it, created an inescapable* BBEG Murder Blender of +3 ****-You-Too-Buddy. Both of the individuals maintaining concentration on the necessary spells were on the safe side of the Wall of Force. A large percentage of creatures in D&D simply have no answer to this combination.
90% of the busted-ness there is force wall (I consider having a means of dealing with force wall/cage more or less mandatory for any boss monster in tier 3 or 4). Usually the way you do something similar is by casting a damaging zone (sickening radiance is a good choice) and then using the force wall to trap the monster, or by casting barred force cage, casting the damaging zone, and moving behind cover so the monster can't use ranged attacks.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
To post a comment, please login or register a new account.
I think this spell is underrated. Bonus action so action is free to use action for cantrip on turn of casting and then other spells on subsequent turns. Base damage is kind of low but with a 15% crit chance instead of 5% gives a good chance for a crit which deals and average 156 damage(24d12). Pair this with war caster to keep concentration and this can easily wipe any boss or a party for the bbeg.
Wrong, the spell is 1 Action to cast, the attacks and movement are a Bonus Action. So both are used for the first round, and BA is used thereafter to attack/move the blades - but the Action is then free for other shenanigans.
No it isn't.
9th-level conjuration
Casting Time: 1 bonus action
Range: 60 feet
Components: V, S
Duration: Concentration, up to 1 minute
The problem with blade of disaster is that, in tier 4 combat, 4d12 (twice) per round is really just chip damage (average 52), and spending your 9th level spell slot and your concentration on that is dubious. It's not a hopeless spell, it might be as good as power word kill, but it's by no means S tier, or even A tier.
You are right, it only requires the Bonus Action, my mistake. But you get to use that 4d12x2 attack for 10 Bonus Action attacks, if combat last that long, and your Action is still free for (non-concentration) things. Oh, and the attacks from BoD have an expanded critical hit range (18-20), and when you score a critical hit it does 12x12 damage instead of 8x12 damage. Sure, the spell is no Wish or Meteor Swarm, but it's not terrible either!
It's also no foresight, invulnerability, mass polymorph, prismatic wall, psychic scream, shapechange, or true polymorph. It's a C tier spell, on the level of power word kill and weird (2024 versions; 2014 power word kill is D tier, weird is F tier).
Perhaps for a Wizard you are correct, or even a Sorcerer, but I am currently seeing it from the viewpoint of a Hexblade Warlock and it doesn't seem too bad from that viewpoint.
The party for my Sunday game features a warlock with Blade of Disaster (the BBEG's chief lieutenant cast it on them, they later learned the spell via their Arcanum to get their revenge) and myself as a wizard who routinely prepares Wall of Force. Because Wall of Force is busted beyond belief, apparently even more so than I thought.
At the end of a long, dangerous dungeon, we cornered a sub-BBEG in her relatively small office space. We spotted just in time that she was setting up a nuclear-level Delayed Blast Fireball, and I cast Wall of Force to seal her side of the office away from our side and make her eat it herself instead. This immediately proceeded to Stage 2 of boss fight. My Wall of Force was still up. Our warlock cast Blade of Disaster...which can pass harmlessly and effortlessly through barriers such as Wall of Force.
We had, without planning it, created an inescapable* BBEG Murder Blender of +3 ****-You-Too-Buddy. Both of the individuals maintaining concentration on the necessary spells were on the safe side of the Wall of Force. A large percentage of creatures in D&D simply have no answer to this combination. Which, yes, is true of other save-or-die spells like (old) True Polymorph as well, but remarkably few two-spell combinations can simply end combat this way. And even many "save or die" spells are "save or die shortly" with a recurring save, not to mention legendary resistance. This combination simply happens.
In this case, the sub-BBEG used Psychic Scream to stun the warlock with an INT save they were incapable of passing and disrupt the Blade of Disaster, so we had to win that fight a different way. But when we broke at the end of session after setting up the Climactic Battle for next time, the DM was staring down an invincible blade that could deal catastrophic damage if given enough time stuck in a 10x20 room underground they had no hope of getting past, with an entire party of 18th-level adventurers on the other side of the unbreakable wall.
Blade of Disaster is not on the same level as the best ninth-level magic in the game. It is far from a bad spell, however. And in exactly the right circumstances it is one of the funniest things you can possibly do to a DM.
Please do not contact or message me.
And DMs never ever plan revenge involving hoisting the players on their own petard. I can't wait for the two dueling casters trying to kill each other with their blades of disaster from opposite sides of the wall of force.
Blade of Disaster is almost never going to be a spell you regret having. You may wish you'd taken something else in particular situations, but it's pretty much always going to be useful, and sometimes it'll be the right thing for the situation.
And, more importantly, it's going to be fun. It's like Psychic Scream. Perhaps not the optimal spell (though it isn't bad), but it makes heads explode. BoD lets your wizard sit back and go hacketty-hack at the enemies. Neither can equal power word: tacnuke in damage output, but nothing can. (And both are slightly more selective, which is often useful.)
Invulnerability is boring and ties up your 9th level slot and concentration without doing anything to the boss, Prismatic Wall is niche, Shapechange scratches a different itch, Mass Polymorph doesn’t actually move the party much closer to victory, Psychic Scream is good as an AoE but not as a focused attack, True Polymorph is either the same as Shapechange or a single save or suck effect, and Foresight is flaky since it’s just additional rolls rather than hard bonuses.
Blade of Disaster bypasses most boss protections against high end magic and attacks for 26 average damage twice per bonus action, before accounting for the boosts to crits. I’d put it at least at B for 9th level spells.
90% of the busted-ness there is force wall (I consider having a means of dealing with force wall/cage more or less mandatory for any boss monster in tier 3 or 4). Usually the way you do something similar is by casting a damaging zone (sickening radiance is a good choice) and then using the force wall to trap the monster, or by casting barred force cage, casting the damaging zone, and moving behind cover so the monster can't use ranged attacks.